Video Game / One Piece: Pirate Warriors

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One Piece: Pirate Warriors (One Piece: Kaizoku Musou in Japanese, meaning "Unparalleled Pirates"/"Peerless Pirates") is a 2012 video game from Namco Bandai, made by Koei).

After adapting Mobile Suit Gundam and Fist of the North Star into Warriors games, KOEI decided to give One Piece the same treatment. The game follows the standard Warriors formula: you run around a stage beating up waves and waves of enemies while achieving objectives to unlock the main opponent. The story covers most of the manga's storyline, specifically some of the more important fights in the series (Don Krieg, Arlong, Crocodile, etc).

The game was released on March 1, 2012 in Japan. Much to the surprise of the fanbase, it was announced that Europe and North America would get the game too (released on September 21, 2012 and September 25, 2012, respectively). However, the former would be able to get it retail while the latter would only be able to obtain the game by download via Play Station Network. Additionally, the English versions would retain the Japanese language and only be in subtitles.

A sequel was made, titled One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2. Unlike its predecessor, Pirate Warriors 2 has its own non-canon storyline. It also includes more characters from the series, as well as elements from after the Time Skip. A second sequel, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, is was released for PS3, PS4, PS Vita and PC in 2015. It, again, includes multiple new characters as well as some slightly updated move sets for certain existing characters. The game features two primary modes of play; In "Legend Log", players can go through a recreation of the entire manga's plot up until the Dressrosa Arc (although half of that arc is abridged in-game due to it still being ongoing during development), or, players can play "Dream Log" mode and conquer islands with any character they want in a series of missions that feature random mixed and matched plot elements and enemies from the series.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors has the following tropes:

The second game brings some of those lost locations back, but still skips over a few, like Fishman Island.

The third game mostly averts this, as it goes out of its way to cover the entire manga, but still relegates some "minor" arcs to references in cutscenes, like Amazon Lily.

Aside from a DLC Mission in Pirate Warriors 3 using the title "Davy Back Fight", the Davy Back Fight arc is barely referenced at all in any of the three games. The only allusion it gets in one of the actual base games comes from 3, where the scene with Aokiji is used as an introduction to the Water 7 level.

Also Whitebeard's use of Conqueror's Haki was an Informed Ability in the manga and anime, whereas he actually uses it in this game.

Adaptational Badass: Everyone. As in, characters (such as Nami, who is powerful but comparatively weak in comparison to the rest of the cast) that would realistically have very little chance of beating up powerful characters such as Logia and Haki users are perfectly capable of doing so in this. Some characters actually acknowledge this.

Nami:(after beating a strong enemy such as Teach or Akainu) "No way... I won?"

Pirate Warriors 2. Ace never quite found Teach in Part 1, so as such never fought him and never went to Impel Down. So the Marineford arc never happened, Ace and Whitebeard are both still alive and Teach doesn't have Whitebeard's power (yet...).

Pirate Warriors 3 averts this up until the Dressrosa arc. Because said arc was still ongoing by the time the game was released, the developers went for an alternate ending.

And Your Reward Is Clothes: In the first game, beating the Main Adventure mode and the Another Logs of Sanji and Zoro unlocks the New World appearances for the Monster Trio. In the sequels, some costumes for characters are unlocked automatically after beating certain episodes, while others need to be bought from the Beli Shop.

Attack Animal: Boa Hancock's pet snake, Salome, is this. She even uses him as a bow for her Slave Arrow special attack.

Bait-and-Switch Boss: In an interesting twist, the Luffy vs. Usopp duel. The way the camera twists around gives the impression that you'll be fighting Usopp, then the camera quickly twists to behind Usopp, and you have to fight Luffy.

Big Bad Duumvirate: Blackbeard, Eneru, and Gekko Moria form an alliance in the story mode for Pirate Warriors 2.

The sequel has several instances. The dialog is correct, for the most part (even remanizing each character's dinstictive laugh correctly), but system messages like mission objectives appear to have been done by translating the strings piecemeal without checking how they fit together, resulting in readable-but-garbled messions like "Support Nami Until The Labratory Entrance".

Pirate Warriors 3 is similar, with a lot of dialogue being technically translated correctly but making no sense in context. This is most notable with scene titles, which are often taken from lines said in the scene itself, but the translation makes them completely different. For example, one scene is titled "This Stage Is Too Fast," but the line it takes its name from is instead translated as "It's too early for you to stand on this stage."

Also in 3, the game doesn't use gender-neutral pronouns, but Dream Story is randomly generated, so while story mode is fine because actions are usually scripted, in Dream Story and Free Story, female characters are referred to with male pronouns instead of "them" or female pronouns.

An odd case of it was when they translate "Okama", the japanese word for "transvestite" as "Oh come my way". Maybe they don't want to use the english term but, there is still New Kama island in some of the games and that makes Mr.2's utilisation of "Okama Kenpo" as "Oh Come My Way Karate" as a really odd choice.

Brainwashed and Crazy: Anyone affected by a "Frenzy Dial" becomes an empowered Berserker that will obey whoever has the "Operational Dial". Teach ends up getting both.

Brick Joke: For Sanji's level opening, he cooks a steak before tossing it on a plate into the air to kick away an enemy. At the end of the stage, he kicks away an enemy, and catches the plate he tossed in the air earlier.

The Cameo: In the third game, Inazuma's scissor hands can pop out of Ivankov's afro to attack enemies. Likewise, Caesar Clown can summon pieces of his Blob Monster Smiley to attack enemies.

Charged Attack: Some characters, such as Luffy, can do this with certain attacks to increase the damage and/or range.

All the arcs (the ones that are covered anyway) are done in sort of a abridged version. It's cool to see it done in CGI, but you don't get the whole story.

Because the Dressrosa arc was still ongoing by the time the third game was released, said arc especially suffers from this. Elements like Doflamingo's crew, the Riku royal family, the Corrida Colosseum gladiators and the toys and dwarves all get the shaft, and only Doflamingo, the Straw Hats, Law, Bellamy, Burgess, Sabo and Fujitora remain. The arc isn't even followed faithfully like the others, but instead given an alternate ending.

Cute Clumsy Girl: Tashigi can sometimes trip and fall during her attacks in the third game. However, it only happens if the player doesn't follow through and finish certain combos, so fear not; her tripping is completely in your control.

Demoted to Extra: Vivi and Shanks, despite their importance to the story and potentially bringing unique fighting styles to the series, are not playable. Until the third game, where Shanks was made playable, though Vivi is still MIA.

Difficult but Awesome: Robin's Dos Fleur: Grab. Inaccurate and slow, and only targets one enemy, but is almost certain to instantly kill them or severely damage them in the case of a boss.

The second game's DLC costumes are Luffy, Zoro and Sanji's outfits from Film Z, and costumes for Nami, Robin, Hancock and Perona modeled after some of the female characters from Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors.

The third game has Hancock's damaged 3D2Y outfit, Law, Robin and Nami's Dressrosa outfits, Strong World Shanks, pre-Time Skip Perona, Tashigi as she appeared after her "Freaky Friday" Flip with Smoker and Nami in her wedding dress from Thriller Bark all available as regular DLC, and Sabo as Lucy and Luffy's fish disguise from the Dressrosa arc as a pre-order bonus.

Drunk with Power: Pirate Warriors 2. Teach when he finally gets Whitebeard's Quake powers. Taken Up to Eleven when he combines his own Darkness with the Frenzy Dial.

Enemy Mine: Repeatedly occurs in Pirate Warriors 2, usually because both parties recognize that there is a far bigger threat to worry about. By the end, even the Marines are (mostly) agreeing to work with the Straw Hat - White Alliance to take down Blackbeard's forces.

Fatal Flaw: In the sequels, just like in the main series, Sanji is completely helpless against female characters. The game even warns the player when the level has women in it. This means that Sanji can't do any damage to them and the only way for him to hurt them is to perform a Crew Strike Combo or Kizuna Attack and get someone else to do the job.

Final Boss: Akainu in the first game, a berserk Teach in the second, and Doflamingo in the third.

Sanji will, just like in the main series, refuse to fight female characters, to the point that the game warns you ahead of time if you try to select him in a battle that features female enemies.

For a minor example, Tashigi's taunt has her lift her glasses; this turns the background slightly blurry to reference the fact that she's Blind Without 'Em.

Luffy is immune to Hancock's Mero Mero Mellow, just like in the main series. Chopper and Fujitora are also immune, because of the former being simply uninterested in females in general and the latter being blind, and thus not knowing what Hancock looks like.

In the main manga, Luffy suffers a severe mental breakdown after Ace dies, and has to be escorted out while his allies continue to fight. The corresponding episode in Pirate Warriors 3 likewise ends as soon as Akainu is defeated if you're playing as Luffy. If you're playing as anyone else, the episode continues, and Luffy and Ace are simply removed from the battlefield.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: Any character you control can defeat any villain faced during the game, but once the enemy's life is depleted, Luffy will always be the one to give the finishing blow in a cutscene. It's even more jarring in the rare case of defeats in the series: for example, on Sabaody you are required to defeat Sentomaru and Kizaru, you do it... then the Straw Hats flee while Luffy states they just can't beat them.

Glass Cannon: Usopp - Who is frail and swift but can attack rapidly from long-range.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Blackbeard loses control of the berserkers and desperately uses Black Hole. This causes the Frenzy Dial "fog" to merge with his "darkness", turning himself and everyone around him into loose berserkers.

Impossible Hourglass Figure: The female characters. This is nothing new, as it is the case in the main series as well, but it is lampshaded in the sequel, with Whitebeard referring to Robin as "an extremely slender young woman".

Interface Spoiler: On the character select screen and in the gallery of the sequel, non-Straw Hat Pirate playable characters are ordered according to when they become playable. However, they are unlocked in the gallery as soon as they're encountered, and not necessarily when they're properly playable. That means the gallery can spoil the order in which the characters are unlocked.

It's Personal: Pirate Warriors 2 has Ace's reason to find Teach. He finally finds him during the Marineford War, but unlike the canon story, this time he has Whitebeard with him.

The fact that Sabo is alive and has eaten the Flame Flame Fruit is spoiled right on its cover art.

In terms of some of the coins and missions, it also subtly spoils the fact that Law is a D.

One cutscene in the final Legend Log level doesn't outright reveal, but strongly hints at the fact that Doflamingo is a former World Noble. When questioned by Law about it, Doffy merely dismisses it as a much more complicated story than Law thinks, and the story moves on.

From the third game, the fastest characters (and arguably the best, since any character can have their strength stat maxed out, but only certain characters have superior speed and combo capability as well) include the above four, Mihawk, Enel, Shanks, Tashigi, Rob Lucci, Marco, Doflamingo, Fujitora, and Sabo.

Limit Break: It wouldn't be a Dynasty Warriors without those. Some of them in the first game were a Super Mode, but all of them are attacks in the sequels.

Loads and Loads of Characters: Not so much in the first game, which only included 13 playable characters (The Straw Hats, Ace, Jinbei, Hancock and Whitebeard), but the second game added 15 more characters to the rosternote Buggy, the Admirals, the post-Time Skip Straw Hats, Smoker, Mihawk, Perona, Marco, Kuma, Crocodile, two versions of Blackbeard, Law, Garp, and Enel, and the third game added ten more characters on top of that.note Tashigi, Moria, Fujitora, Doflamingo, Caesar Clown, Sabo, Shanks, Ivankov, Magellan and Rob Lucci.

Marathon Level: One of the DLC challenges is an all-out brawl in which you're alone and have to defeat 9999 enemies.

Whitebeard moves pretty slowly, but can dish out a lot of damage and his Conqueror's Haki has a wide range that can knock out a lot of Mooks and stun bosses.

This also applies to Franky: his attacks are slow and his pre-timeskip self needs to refuel on cola every now and then, but he hits hard, and has a decent range.

Jinbe attacks slowly, moves slowly, and overall feels heavy, but he hits like a darn tank, and many of his attacks are very wide.

Multiple Endings: The second game. You're at first stuck on the normal ending route, but fulfill certain conditions and you'll be able to go for the true ending.

Mythology Gag: The games have a ton of references to the manga, ranging from attacks (some of them even hailing from filler material) and quotes to trophy names, poses and indirect cameos.

Old Save Bonus: Starting up the second game with a save file of the first game in the PS3 will net you 500,000 Berries and a rare golden coin right off the bat.

One-Hit Kill: Robin's level 2 special attack, Dos Fleur: Grab, though it comes with the drawback of only hitting one target at a time. It works on bosses, too!

One-Man Army: The playable characters, as per Dynasty Warriors tradition. Many of them are one-man armies in the manga itself, but this game especially allows their status as such to shine. Whitebeard specifically has a move called "One Man Army".

Promoted to Playable: Some characters who only appeared as bosses or cameos in the first game are playable in the second, like Kuma, Garp, and the Admirals. Likewise, some more characters were promoted to playable in the third game, like Rob Lucci and Gekko Moriah.

Puzzle Boss: In Usopp's battle against Luffy, he's severely outmatched, understandably. You have to lure Luffy into traps to lower his health. While you do have some useful techniques to do good damage to him, the traps do the most damage.

Rare Random Drop: The coins start to become a real pain to find the less there are left. The Straw Hats' New World Marks are only capable of being found if the player does exceptionally well in a level note 700+ ! points, and even then they still might not get them. To say nothing of the Marks of characters such as Sabo and Marco... Fortunately, the second game shows what type of coins are likely to drop from each stage, making things a touch easier.

Ryu and Ken: Some of the non playable boss characters are simply copies of playable characters in PW2, examples include Sentomaru as Jinbei and Vista as a pre-timeskip Zoro.

Sad Battle Music: In the third game, the music turns sad and somber after Ace dies, and remains that way until the battle with Teach.

Say It with Hearts: Sometimes. In the third game, this is mostly done by Sanji. If he is paired with a woman in a Kizuna Rush and is being played as, the ending of the attack name will have a heart next to it.

In the first game, by putting three coins together on a board that are linked in some fashion, (i.e: members of a crew, devil fruit users, noses) their usual stat boosting abilities are negated for a special effect.

In the second game, putting two coins with a relationship next to each other(e.g. A Nami coin and a Clima-Tact coin) increases the stat boost for that board, and filling in themed bingo cards with coins is how you unlock skills.

Taken for Granite: Some of Hancock's attacks petrify the enemies for a short while, making them vulnerable to more hits. As a funny nod to the main canon, they also freeze in a silly, lovey-dovey pose.

Every Main Log level ends with one, mirroring the main series. Also just like the main series' first half, the first game ends with "GO TO NEW WORLD" instead.

The third game features a variation on the latter phrase. When the credits are done rolling, the Legend Log concludes with "GO TO NEW ADVENTURE".

True Ending: Unlocked after clearing the first ending and a select few of the available crew missions in PW 2, where Whitebeard survives and things go south for Teach.

Units Not to Scale: The mooks are way tinier than the main playable cast (even Luffy is taller than them, in most media, he's about as tall as your standard human), even with most of the characters already being large it's noticeable. Kuzan for example, he's taller than the main cast, but not by a significant amount, in his victory animation his foot is larger than the chest of the frozen pirate he threatens to shatter.

In the third game, even the 10 foot tall Doflamingo somehow manages to have his height exaggerated a bit. He towers over the 9'1 Brook even though Brook should only be a bit below his neck.

Victory Pose: One for each character (Usopp gets an extra one for Sogeking), which are obviously loaded with references to the manga. Franky's pose in the first game, for example, is directly lifted from his introductory speech. Pirate Warriors 3 sadly axes them.

Nami's playstyle. Her attacks are generally the weakest of all the playable characters, but are used as setups (by making clouds over enemies heads) for the powerful Thunderbolt Tempo.

Perona in the sequel. She has a hard time when it comes to building her Special Meter and her attacks don't do much damage but she can send out ghosts to inhabit/depress the enemies, which then enables her to deal meaty amounts of damage by removing ghosts from the depressed enemies(blowing them up).

We Cannot Go on Without You: In the other characters' stages in Another Log, if a certain character (usually Luffy) is defeated, it's an automatic Game Over. Many stages in the sequels also cause an instant Game Over if (a) certain character(s) happens to fall in battle.

Your Size May Vary: Because of gameplay limitations, the sizes of some of the characters are very different from their official manga stats. Whitebeard is far shorter while Doflamingo is far taller, seeing as how Whitebeard should be around 5-8 feet taller than the 10 foot tall Mingo based on their manga comparisons to Aokiji and Akainu (who are the same height); yet Doflamingo towers over him and everybody else. Blackbeard was also dramatically shortened; he's actually a foot taller than Doflamingo according to the manga, but here he's barely even taller than Luffy!

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